


Slavery stories  - my early years

by Imperial_Dragon



Category: Original Work
Genre: Essays, Gen, M/M, Master/Slave, Meta, Nonfictional writing, Other, Slavery, discussion of slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:00:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24471688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imperial_Dragon/pseuds/Imperial_Dragon
Summary: What I read and enjoyed. I still don't know why!
Comments: 11
Kudos: 13





	Slavery stories  - my early years

**Author's Note:**

> Rosemary Sutcliffe Eagle of the Ninth  
> “Citizen of the galaxy” by Robert Heinlein  
> “The Warlock of Night” by Dahlov Ipcar  
> “The Persian boy” by Mary Renault  
> “Dune” by Frank Herbert  
> Gor John Norman  
> “Child of the Sun” Lance Horner & Kyle Onstott  
> Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock

What are your early memories of reading slave or authority related stories? And what were your earliest writing or art in this genre? Here’s my recollection of my past in these genres, with all the caveats that all our memories are constructed and fluid.

But it is from this past that I construct the narratives I write now. This little excursion down memory lane has reminded me of where I came from, and I’d love to hear your story.

I don’t remember the first story I read featuring slaves or m/m sex but I think I was interested quite early. I read a lot as a child, mostly science fiction, fantasy and some history. I’m sure I read the Rosemary Sutcliffe Eagle of the Ninth stories but I don’t really remember them.

“Citizen of the galaxy” by Robert Heinlein has a slave protagonist which fascinated me. Andre Norton had some stories set in a “Dipple” verse, and I think that in “Night of Masks” the protagonist was bought from the Dipple.

I remember a children’s mystery set in modern times but I have no idea of the title or author. All I remember is a scene where two boys were captured, tied up and interrogated. The chapter ended with the villain saying something like: “Strip them”, he said silkily and running a whip between his fingers (I think the kids were rescued before the whipping☹)

“The Warlock of Night” by Dahlov Ipcar is a chess game written as a novel and has no slavery but does have a menacing magician who swans around in black robes. His apprentice was punished by being turned mentally into a dog or pig, but not physically, so it was very humiliating.

The really influential story I remember is “The Persian boy” by Mary Renault, my favourite slave fic ever. Don’t take it as true history, it was written as homage to Alexander the Great, but it sure is evocative of the times. Bagoas is a fantastic character woven from a few historical mentions.

“Dune” by Frank Herbert had both slavery and m/m with the Baron Harkonnen, a deeply unpleasant man, which was usual for the treatment of gay characters. That also stimulated my interest in world building (along with “The Lord of the Rings”, but I read no LOTR fanfiction at all).

And Gor. Oh my. I was fascinated by the series when I first read it but the misogyny and frankly terrible writing soon put me off. But in those days there was not much slavefic to feed my interest, so it took a while for my self-respect to kick in. As an antidote to that, read [Houseplants of Gor](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1861752) \- if you have not read any John Norman this is much better than his stuff.

There was also quite a bit of historical American slaves stories around, soft or not so soft porn, but I found it hard to read. Too close to our own time, perhaps. But the authors Lance Horner & Kyle Onstott also wrote “Child of the Sun” which is set in ancient Rome about the Emperor Antoninus aka Elagabalus. M/m romance with lots of slaves.

There’s a lot of fiction that has slavery but does not feature it. Most influential for me were the Elric of Melnibone stories by Michael Moorcock. I really got into this and collected books and art. It stimulated my first writing, not about Elric but about his imagined ancestor, another emperor sorcerer who owned lots of boy slaves. I wrote screeds of kneeling and unrequited pining which never got to the point of actual sex, or even plot. Thankfully I’ve got over that! (Oh wait, there’s only one sex scene in 33,700 words in Imperial Earth, but there’s a bit of kneeling.)

And then I discovered fan fiction in my twenties, at a friend’s place where I picked up a K/S zine and got hooked. There were lots of zines, then I dropped out for years, and by the time I came back AO3 was the leading light on the internet. Sadly, places like LiveJournal are no longer going; it is very disappointing to see stories on the slavefic lists that look wonderful but are no longer available.

I’ve bought a few novels online, but in general I am disappointed in the standard of writing in the professional novels as compared to what is available on AO3. There are gems but the standard of writing is well below that of commercially published fantasy.

I’m not sure when I actually realised that I liked slave narratives because of the slavery, but probably around puberty. It is the sexual kink that initially attracted me and keeps me reading, and how that relates to me as a person I don’t know. I do remember worrying about it and wondering if liking slavefic meant anything about my morals, but since I realised that it made no difference to my opinions on slavery in the real world I stopped worrying!

Looking back, I sense that I had an immediate response to slave narratives and m/m sex and relationships but truly from this distance in time I may be making that up. I had a childhood immersed in books, and it may be telling that these stories remain in my memory as significant.

It is a different world nowadays. It was all print in my childhood and the opportunities for finding my preferred stories were far more limited than today. How that affects today’s readers and writers I don’t know but I’d love to find out.


End file.
